Got a Vertex 2E coming, but grabbed another Spinpoint F3 to raid up in stripe with my current one for faster warcraft loading times and such - do I create the volume using the motherboard's so-called raid controller or by using Windows 7? I've seen conflicting opinions about onboard raid but the consensus seems to be that it's(fake raid?), will software really do a better job?

There are three types of RAID controllers:
1) Software... within the OS.
2) Host-based... onboard controllers or cheap addin cards that utilize your system CPU and RAM.
3) Hardware... addin cards that have their own dedicated CPU and memory.

There are three types of RAID controllers:
1) Software... within the OS.
2) Host-based... onboard controllers or cheap addin cards that utilize your system CPU and RAM.
3) Hardware... addin cards that have their own dedicated CPU and memory.

Choice 3 isn't going to be that much of an improvement so it is best just to use your, already paid for, on-board controller.

My software raid in Win 7 performs just as well as the ICH10R controller or better. It also lets me set AHCI mode on the SSD. I know trim still works on RAID when 1 SSD is in the mix but I rather have it in AHCI and be sure.